Song of the Day Redux, Day 20: IRO-Bot
Coheed & Cambria: IRO-Bot
Hey, an album track! It wasn't discussed on smoomoo31's Song of the Day series, so it's time to talk IRO-Bot.
The Content: I'm not sure whether it was ever the intention to write this song out in its entirety as an album track, and that got dropped, or if Claudio just wanted an acoustic demo track as a bonus song. Either way, this song is actually within the concept, giving us insight into the IRO-Bots. In true Claudio form, the lyrics probably don't belong to any one character, but are instead a thematic collection of character emotions and feelings. It seems to be about Inferno and his IRO-Bots, but also about the fact that Coheed and Cambria (two IRO-Bots) have died, but will live on in Claudio. The song meaning could also have been retro-fitted for Sizer when Claudio wrote his character. In any case, it's a song dealing with cyborg mortality, which is pretty fascinating.
I have a theory that Claudio, as a sci-fi geek, was actually singing the much more obvious "I, Robot" and reflecting on the Asimov book series (not the feature length sneakers commercial that came out later.) I mean, Delirium Trigger was about the movie Aliens and fitted for the concept later. When asked about it he just said it was different, IRO-Bot, even though that doesn't really stand for anything.
The Music: A quiet, pensive song. Claudio does a lot of vocal layers, as he likes to do in his demos. If you don't let the sci-fi beeping in the chorus bother you, it's quite beautiful. There are two guitars going on in the verse, and I suspect that they're both Claudio in this case. Towards the end of the song we get a repeated motif of three piano notes. It's faster than normal, but they're the same three notes in the SSTB intro. IRO-Bot vs. SSTB. Neat, huh?
It's worth looking at the Neverender performance of IRO-Bot, and how the band completely reimagines it after the verse. Whatever you say about Chris Pennie, you have to admit he does an awesome job at bringing this song to life. The little drum fill he does in the pre-chorus (you've been a bad boy) is amazing. And when Mic and Travis step in right before the chorus. Ohh man. They make the song electric and heavy, and it's awesome. As I've said before, it's possible that this arrangement was always the intention for this song but it was just never done for SSTB, or that they reimagined the song just for Neverender. Claudio also adds the lyric "and how?" after "If I'm to be killed, then when, by whom?" which is a pretty good addition, I think. Wes plays the piano riff, and Claudio SINGS the synth part, before a quick "whoa-oh-oh" section reprising (foreshadowing?) IKSSE3. Fucking. Incredible. And if that wasn't enough, they also played IRO-Bot on the Neverender SSTB tour. And Travis turns that piano motif into a killer solo. Pretty damn cool.
The Part: The last chorus and outro. Though I find it hard separate that outro, in my mind, from the fantastic live renditions they did years later.
Posted Aug 17, 2013, 11:29 PM UTC · edited